The sport of skateboarding began in the 1960's as an offshoot of surfing. Because skateboards can be used just about anywhere, such as streets and sidewalks, and are not limited to coastal areas with decent surf, it has eclipsed the popularity of surfing many times over both in terms of numbers of participants and size of the industry. As would be expected with such a developed sport, skateboards and their components have evolved over the four decades or so since the first person took the wheels off an old pair of roller skates and put them on the underside of a piece of wood.
The modern skateboard comprises several basic components, including a riding surface, or deck, usually made of an elongated piece of wood, fiberglass or some other sturdy, resilient and sometimes flexible material, four wheels with some sort of ball bearing arrangement upon which the deck and rider are transported, and two skateboard trucks, where the trucks are the devices by which the wheels are connected to the deck. The trucks are attached to the deck in a mirror image manner, such that as a user leans on one side of the skateboard, the forces cause each truck to simultaneously steer in the opposite direction that the other truck steers. While located in a fairly unobtrusive location on the underside of the deck, the trucks are very important as they determine how the skateboarder controls his/her skateboard by determining how a skateboard's wheels turn.
Skateboard trucks have several basic components, within which there can be some variation. The basic components of the modern skateboard truck include a base plate or a truck mounting plate that is fastened to the bottom of the deck. The base plate also includes a pivot cup that receives a pivot pin that extends from a “hanger” that comprises the top portion of the truck and houses an axle for mounting the wheels. A bolt, or kingpin attaches the hanger to the base plate, and usually includes at least two kingpin bushings that allow movement of the hanger about the pivot pin. The ease of movement is generally adjusted by a kingpin nut threaded onto the end of the kingpin.
Specifically, the kingpin extends through a ring in the hanger that includes an oversized hole for the kingpin. Generally, two kingpin bushings are located about the kingpin, one on either side of the hanger ring, with the kingpin nut securing the kingpin bushings. The kingpin bushings are usually made of plastic components such as urethane, and by tightening the kingpin nut it becomes more difficult to pivot the hanger, and therefore more difficult to turn the skateboard. That is, tightening the kingpin nut generally tends to make the skateboard more stable and less susceptible to “wobble” at higher speeds, resulting in an undesirable trade-off between a user's desire for skateboard maneuverability versus stability at higher speeds.
It is apparent that existing skateboard trucks limit the turning ability of the skateboard as they allow unacceptably small axle deflection unless the rider loosens the bushings so much that the board develops an undesirable wobble at higher speeds.
Therefore, there remains a need to overcome one or more of the limitations in the above-described, existing art. The discussion of the background to the invention included herein is included to explain the context of the invention. This is not to be taken as an admission that any of the material referred to was published, known or part of the common general knowledge as at the priority date of the claims.
It will be recognized that some or all of the Figures are schematic representations for purposes of illustration and do not necessarily depict the actual relative sizes or locations of the elements shown. The Figures are provided for the purpose of illustrating one or more embodiments of the invention with the explicit understanding that they will not be used to limit the scope or the meaning of the claims.